Crazed Clockwork
by NatsuhiNamikaze
Summary: It was then she decided, that she hated him and if one day he will pass out from his sugar high – she wouldn't blink, but kill that clowny bastard on the spot. Brelice, snippets about the development of their relationship in a Break is Alice's contractor AU


**Authoress' Notes:** Just a little something (that proved to be quite a stubborn plot bunny in its quest to be written) until Sin XI comes out. I'm the scum of Earth for not updating it already, but I'm going back to work on it, I promise!

**Summary:** It was then she decided, that she hated him and if one day he will pass out from his sugar high – she wouldn't blink, but kill that clowny bastard on the spot. Brelice, snippets about the development of their relationship in a Break is Alice's contractor AU

**Warning:** Alice's language and suggestive themes. Also graphic smut at the end so be warned. =)

**Disclaimer:** As usual I don't own anything. The second story is based upon _**A Nap és a Szél Háza (The House of the Sun and Wind)**_ by _**Dalriada**_ which is about one of the Hungarian legends about the origin of the Pleiades constellation.

**Crazed Clockwork**

Humans were strange. This was a very well-known truth, as elemental as the fact that there was no end to the Abyss; something every Chain agreed heartily upon. Of course Alice herself had no first hand experience with either of the above, but that did not stop her from concluding to the public opinion.

She too have heard the stories of humans that sought after forging a Contract with a Chain; of how they despaired, made promises, alternated between bargaining and swearing at whatever almighty higher being they made up in their minds, spit out profanities or vowed revenge until their prayers (or curses) were finally heard.

All of them wanted desperately to get back something or another. None of them ever succeeded.

Some Chains that obtained a Contractor was away for quite a long time (she wasn't exactly sure about that because time was an elusive and tricky thing in the Abyss, something that was hard to measure, but all too easy to miss); but most came back after a very short while – the brown-haired girl saw the kicking and screaming _something_ they dragged with themselves, what supposedly used to be a human being once upon a time with a completed dial on their chests; trying to buy _just a little more time_ to finish up whatever they obsessed over and realizing a little too late that their time had all too quickly ran out.

They all made such a ruckus in their final moments, despite knowing from the very beginning what they got themselves into and after witnessing the process repeating time and time again, Alice concluded that humans was more troublesome than what they was worth.

And so the brunette decided to avoid all and every contact with humans, instead waiting for the time when the shackles binding her power weakens and she can force her way out of this rat hole – and conveniently leaving out the fact that even if she tried (and she _did try_ numerous times already) she could not cross to the other side. (Not that any of those lowlifes would be able to withstand her power anyway.)

But for now Alice begrudgingly admitted to staying in her spot in the Abyss. Even if that was the ruined remnants of a grotesque and sorry excuse of a room with its half-collapsed walls, broken furniture and torn drapes and bedding. But it was enough (and besides, when was anything good or at least in an acceptable state in this place?); she was after all the Bloodstained Black Rabbit that no one dared to disturb or any other way drew her anger towards themselves.

That is until _**he**_ appeared.

The brown-haired girl was balancing on the delicious line between light slumber and a dreamless sleep, not at all ready to step into the realm of one or the other (as she did for quite a long time now. Sleeping was dangerous in here and even if she could easily overpower anyone that dared to challenge her, there was always an idiot or two that tried nonetheless. Not that she could blame them. There was really nothing to do here.) when a melodic voice disrupted her peace.

"My, my, I did not expect to see another human in here~!" at the sing-song voice Alice opened one of her eyes and carefully measured up her 'visitor'. Despite the black and white uniform he wore (damn Pandora agents, since when wasn't they satisfied with their Rocking-Horse-Flies and Snap-Dragon-Flies to search for other Chains? Not that she could blame them either. The only thing trashier than those were the Trumps.) he did not look anything close to being strong and so Alice slowly slid her eyelid closed.

"I'm not a human, you damned Clown." she replied lazily, hoping to scare him away. No such luck.

"Oh, then are you perhaps a Chain, young Miss?" his voice sounded amused when he hopped down on the mattress next to Alice.

"That's right. Now go away, I'm trying to sleep." the brunette growled out, not at all pleased with the sweet smell that invaded her nostrils with his proximity.

"Is that so?" There was the not-so-discreet noise of him searching in his pockets and unwinding wrappers. Damn, he was annoying. "What kind of Chain are you?" he asked before popping something sweet-smelling in his mouth.

"A very powerful one." A wicked smile stretched out on her lips as the girl deadpanned without opening her eyes. Now with sleep out of the window she guessed she might as well entertain herself on his expense for a while.

"I see." he laughed heartily. The sound was reminding her of something, though she could not put her finger on what actually. Oh well. "Do you perhaps have a name?"

"Of course I have, you stupid Clown!" Alice sprang up from her position on the bed and faced the white-haired man. "I'm the one and only B-Rabbit, strongest Chain in the Abyss!"

If he was surprised by the unusual claim of the brown-haired girl he did not show it. As if he expected to find brown-haired girls left and right sleeping in half-destroyed floating rooms in strange dimensions claiming to be the most powerful beings (not counting the Will of the Abyss, but why would anyone count her, really?) like it was the most mundane thing in the world. The sicko.

"That's perfect then!" after a minute of silently measuring up each other the albino clapped his hands together happily and pulled out a few more colorful _whatchamacallits_. In defence of Alice even if they did looked familiar she could not recall when and where did she see them or what they was exactly. "You see I'm looking for a powerful enough Chain to form a Contract with. So how about it: you help me out with my problem and in turn I'll give you whatever you want. It's only fair, is it not?" he quickly added with his mouth full.

"Yes, except you don't have anything I could possibly want." the brown-haired girl shot back with a haughty tone while making _'shoo'_, _'scram'_, _'fuck off'_ (or whatever you want to call them) motions with her hand. Besides he did not look like someone who could even last a month – whatever that was – so no point in making a Contract with him. And while she was just as much desperate to get out of this dump as the next Chain (maybe even a little more since unlike some idiots she had places to be and things to see for herself) she just wasn't _that_ desperate.

"Not even my company?" the albino man did not miss a beat to answer with a mock-hurt tone. Can't he read simple hand gestures? Damn, he was irritating.

"Especially not your company." The brunette looked less than pleased which made the white-haired creep smile as if he was the only one knowing a big secret. Yep, he was positively annoying.

The red-eyed man fished out two more colorful round objects from a pocket (_'Will he ever run out of them?'_ Alice thought bitterly.) and after examining them carefully he slowly unwinded one (the green one) and popped a small, but sweet-smelling yellowish round _something_ into his mouth. "And if I became your servant?" the man asked as he crushed the thing with his teeth.

A few loud thumps and rickety noises disturbed the static silence of the little nook they currently occupied. For a moment they both looked intently at the surrounding darkness, alert to whatever that may lurk around. (And boy do a lot of trash lurk around! What the hell was with this commotion? Did the Core of the Abyss finally lose her shit? Not that she did not lose – and apparently never found it again – a long time ago.)

It was the brown-haired girl who was the first to break away from the odd tension eminating from the darkness. It was as if someone tossed a pebble into a dormant little pond and now all of its inhabitants were silently in wait for the response of the something living in the depths before making their own.

"I don't need another servant." the girl scoffed as she flippantly tossed a stray strand of hair over her shoulder. "I already have plenty."

"Then how about this?" he took out something that looked like a small, round piece of mirror on a chain and put it on the bed before her. "It's a shame but our time seems to be just about up. I suggest we end this fastly as it seems there are some who would want to meet me and I'm sure the sentiment is not reciprocated in the least." a sigh escaped the white-haired man's lips. "I want to do this the right way." he said as he lowered himself onto one knee and carefully lifted one of her hands to his mouth for a small kiss. "Would you accept a knight, Milady B-Rabbit?"

Just as the albino was waiting for the answer of one positively confused Chain (just what in the never-ending Abyss was he doing? Was he trying to eat her arm? She never even heard about Chain-eating humans – normally it was the other way around – but then again humans really _**are**_ strange no matter how you look at it.), there was another heavy thump and a huge fist broke through the blue and green striped piece of wall next to them before a swarm of various Cards, Mad Babies and other trash poured in. Boy, was someone just a little too eager to die...

"Alice." the brown-haired girl tossed it to him like she tossed Mad Babies and Hedgehogs around on the regular midnight tea parties – the ones that was organized by her for her and attended only by her – as she took her fighting position. (Appearantly midnight tea parties was the new craze in the Abyss and Alice swore she would be damned if she did not have one – even if she did not know what _'midnight'_, _'tea'_ and _'party'_ or any of its combinations meant). "My name is Alice."

A huge grin stretched from one of his ears to the other (and it was a very annoying grin, if she says so) as the white-haired man pulled out a – wait was that a cane? Freak. – and readied himself for the oncoming attack and Alice could not stop a smile of her own to form on her lips.

Maybe, just maybe she was curious about this white-haired idiot that for some reason did not leave her alone and what he was capable of. Besides, the worst that could happen is that she would be back here in this dump in a heartbeat. (And a very little, very dark part of her silently wondered about who knows when will the next person appear that will want to form a Contract with her?)

Finally, it looked like things was getting interesting...

~ o ~

The first thing Alice, the Almighty B-Rabbit – strongest Chain in the whole Abyss, mind you – noticed about her new, or more precisely her very first Contractor ever (aside from looking like an idiotic clown – really, just what kind of raging lunatic wore that much purple on a daily basis?) was that how much he could not be trusted.

His words, that was so often misleading and dubious in meaning was bad enough, but the albino man had a certain fondness for trickery and a tendency to use others around him to do his dirty work. (A rather painful encounter came to her mind, when just two weeks after forging their Contract, she was used as bait to lure out an Illegal Contractor who targeted only young girls.) She could barely hold herself back as she watched him deliver the finishing blow then waltz over to her and thank her for being _'such a lovely little bait'_.

There was something seriously wrong with him, thought Alice surly as she peeked into one of the kitchens of Pandora. In the last few weeks incidents like that started to pile up; and she was already contemplating that maybe making a Contract with him wasn't such a good idea as it first seemed. So it only made sense to keep a close eye on the white-haired man and his annoying act to see if he was dangerous or not, but she nearly jumped when a familiar voice broke her concentration.

"Good morning, Alice~!" the white-haired creep called out a little too happily for her taste and looked straight at her observation post (she refused to call it a hiding place) with a huge smile on his face. "Would you like to join me for breakfast, hmm~?" he hummed a happy little tune and hold out a swirly pink lollipop towards her, but before the brunette could answer someone else joined in.

"Stalker rabbit, stalker rabbit!" cracked a way too familiar voice and the brown-haired girl could hardly endure to not set the kitchen on fire. Kitchen fires were not good, she had to remind herself. Because then that woman (her animal instincts screamed _'Danger!'_ whenever she was close-by) who was always with the Clown would have her head.

"Hush Emily! It's not nice to say the truth out loud." the red-eyed man gently chided the creepy blue-skinned doll that was always perched on his shoulder.

"Go die in a freak accident, Pierrot!" Alice stomped away cursing.

It was then she decided, that she hated him and if one day he will pass out from his sugar high – she wouldn't blink, but kill that clowny bastard on the spot.

~ o ~

The second thing the brown-haired girl noticed was that the bastard had no concept of personal space. He had popped out from (or under) the most ridiculous places most of the time (like when he crawled out from Shelly's skirt. God, the beating he received from that stunt was a sight to behold.) and usually existed just a little too close to her glorious self for her comfort.

That's why Alice was initially overjoyed when she received her own room in the Rainsworth Residence (though she still needed to share a room with him at Pandora, since they did not know about the unprecedented freedom she fought out for herself; and according to their practices she should've been only let out when her power was needed. Well, they could show up their policies right in their asses for all she cared.), but her delight proved to be very short-lived. Right on the second night that she spent in her new _'home'_ a great storm poured its fury on the quiet countryside estate.

It was unlike anything the brunette had experienced so far in the three months she have spent already in this world (there was no storms in the Abyss, only an uneasy calm, that could be broken at any moment). With every bright flash and loud noise that lighted the room up and shook the glass of the large windows, the girl wrapped herself more tightly in her blanket and let out a choked whimper. The Famous B-Rabbit wasn't supposed to be a scaredy-cat who jumped with a start for every large noise she heard!

"You can't sleep either, Alice?" said girl stiffened visibly under the blanket. She did not hear him come in. Then again, the creep could walk very silently when he wanted to.

"What the hell do you want, you Clown?" she spat out, rubbing her eyes angrily to remove the tears. She was sure he will tease her mercilessly if he saw them. (They was after all in a cold ceasefire, she reminded herself; waiting for the other to make the first move to an all-out war where everything was fair game.)

"I'm terribly afraid of the thunder." with an incredibly fake tone the man walked over to the windows and quickly drawn the curtains closed before facing her. For a moment Alice felt like to beat the living daylights out from him for mocking her but what she saw when he stepped closer to her bed caught every retort in her throat.

Even in the dark she could make out his expression; it wasn't the carefree half-smile or the grotesque grin the brown-haired girl was so accustomed to see on his face, but a serious, near contemplating stare as his red gaze fixed on her. This time Alice could not stop the tears falling from her eyes.

Why? Why did he look like that? Why didn't he just make a joke at her expense, laugh and go away like always? What was wrong with him? She could not understand it and it was not fair. It was not fair. Why didn't he said anything? She hadn't known it!

She hadn't known it will turn out like that! It was her first time seeing something like... She never had a Contractor before so she couldn't know that there was a dial and once it completed its circle... She didn't know...

The scattered links of her frantic chain of thoughts was only assembled and lined up again when she felt a gentle pat on her head and Alice's hand instantly shot up to her scalp before the white-haired man could retract his own.

"Don't!" The girl didn't know what this was, but the cold she felt in her chest since the incident with the 'Illegal Contractor' that dawn seemed to melt away and give place to a warm feeling. "It's not bad." the brunette muttered as she averted her eyes from his.

"Then would you be so kind to protect me tonight~?" it was only a moment after when the mattress squeaked with his added weight, but the brown-haired girl already jumped back so much that she nearly fell off the opposite end of the bed.

"Here." Alice let out a not-so-quiet huff as she throw a (very small) piece of her blanket to his face. She did not wait for a reply, only lay down on her side of the bed, facing away from the grinning man. "And stay on your side!"

"Hmm?"

"Be grateful manservant, because of my benevolence you won't freeze tonight." then as if an afterthought she added "It's _cold_."

"Yes, it is, m'lady." before she could answer him, Break was already curled up next to her, pressing her lithe body to his. "Will you hold me, so I can feel safe and sleep better~?"

"Don't push your luck!"

Alice sighed inwardly. Somehow she could not find it in herself to kick him out of her bed. Not when the white-haired man was so unexpectedly warm as one of his hands combed her hair and he embraced her a little tighter every time she shuddered because of another bellow from the sky; as he was silently whispering her a story about knights and princesses, mystical beasts and seven-headed dragons until she could not hear the thunder anymore.

And although the story did end up with the knight saving the princess, thus earning her hand in marriage with half of her father's kingdom and they lived happily ever after; it was different from the stories Shelly read to her and Sharon. They were darker; there was times where the hero's companions betrayed him and he killed them brutally and the romance part wasn't even important in the tales (only the last two sentences told her that they got married and might be still alive 'till this day), but she liked them better.

That night before the brunette slipped to a pleasant dream, Alice decided that if she ever gets into a situation where she must kill him, then she will make sure that he will be awake, facing her and armed.

~ o ~

The brown-haired Chain didn't know what to call her third discovery, but if she had to put it into words it would be something along the lines of "he didn't belong to anywhere". He wasn't here, but he wasn't there either at the same time; instead it was a rather peculiar situation: the albino was so full of contradictions and wearing so many different masks that by the end of the day Alice – fed up with not reaching a clean answer or any answer for that matter – had decided to go on an investigation and see for herself who is the real one prancing around as that idiotic clown. If that even made sense. For her it made and that was as good a reason as any to play Pandora agent for the day (a rather cold shudder ran along her back at the thought).

So the next morning – armed with a pen and a notepad – the brunette had gone to hunt down her victi- I mean the scattered pieces of the truth. It wasn't so difficult, though not as easy as she would've liked it, but thanks to her acute observations of her enviroment (who knows when will the need arise to quickly ditch this place) and the rather impressive list of her targets – the fact that the girl made it the night before did not lessen its genius – Alice managed somehow.

According to the list the first and most logical one to go to was the purple brat – her name was Sharon as she herself so thoughtfully reminded Alice – but she regretted it almost immediately.

After four hours of drinking uncomfortably hot leaf juice dubbed as _'tea'_ (Alice preferred 'tea' that involved numerous violent ends of swollen-headed Chains), eating unexpectedly delicious little tart thingies named cupcakes and muffins (the same ones the Clown favored) and unexplainably wounding up in various dresses; all the while enduring squees and coos and other forms of human compliments seasoned with some hair pulling, scalp grilling with hot irons and smearing of smelly face paints (that's it! Humans are freaks!) – the girl escaped with nothing (if we do not count the many shameful stories of _**him**_ in dresses and paints that made the most delicious blackmail material) other than that the Clown was here a year ot two longer than her. Go figure.

Once Alice caught her breath in a little nook of the third – the servant's! – floor, she proceeded to question the other subjects on her rather large (for her anyways) list, but when she reached Unnamed Servant #9 the brunette deemed it was time for lunch.

And that's exactly how the brown-haired girl wound up three hours later munching on a rather well-prepared drumstick while adjusting her findings so far. (Hah! Look and behold pathetic mortals of this land: the mighty Mistress Alice was also a Queen of multitasking!)

So far the brunette could discover many things, but instead of clearing the picture those added details only managed to confuse her more. The Clown was here a little more than a year longer than her. While no one (not even the bra- Sharon, her name was Sharon) know anything certain, but he did not come from any prominent family. He was most probably a commoner when he wound up mysteriously (and bloody and injured or so the rumor among the servants said) at the Rainsworths' gate to the Abyss.

So it only made sense that the man had a rather low social standing which somehow explained his uncharacteristic politeness when dealing with those pig-headed members of Pandora (but was still strange compared to his normal clown-_ish_ ways when he met up in private with the four-eyes or the bearded pedophile as _Mrs._ Shelly once called him when he 'made a move on her sweet, innocent little daughter' or whatever).

But it did not explain why was it that one minute the albino man was all noble-like (at least from what she could gather from Sharon's incessant chatter about polite behaviour and the few instances she could observe noblemen herself – because she did not trust them and there was no way she will let her annoying son-of-a-clown Contractor die before she found each and every piece of her memories and that was the only reason. Really. And no, she was not rambling, thank you very much.) but in the next he was easily angered and overly defensive for no apparent reason at all. Especially if it was her. Heck, it was only when it was her.

It was unfair! Why was it that on exactly the same day every year the white-haired man became excessively irate, impatient and downright impolite with her, instead of his normal laughing, touchy and silly, but at the same time cunning and calculating self?

The girl just couldn't understand why was he so angry whenever she so much as dared to be in the same room as him so she had to avoid him for the rest of the day. Why was it that after a day of hiding from his own Contractor (Alice would've bet a higher amount of money that once this gets into the ears of other Chains or – Abyss forbid! – the Will herself, she will be the laughing-stock of the Abyss) he would come back to her and pat her head gently as if nothing happened? As if he didn't look like he would've killed – wanted to kill – her just hours before?

It frightened her.

_**He**_ frightened her.

And she hated it.

That's why on one of those days when his remarks got exceptionally nasty,– when the albino man made it painfully clear that he did not need her, did not want her and for the both of them it would be the best if she did not show herself before him ever again – she (still under the numbing spell of his red-hot anger) complied with his request and hid herself on the verge of his consciousness – right in the middle of his soul.

And while desperately wanting to, the brunette did not take the risk to cry or let even a sigh escape her lips lest she incure more of her Contractor's wrath. The only thing the girl dared is to sit silently and occasionally glance at the mindscape around her.

Alice did not know anything about the inner world of Contractors' (she never had the desire to stay in them nor did she wanted to miss out on anything regarding the humans' dimension), but she was fairly sure it was not meant to look like this; like the dusty attic that is situated on the topmost floor of the Rainsworth Mansion, the same attic that the albino man regularly took her up on her first few weeks of staying with them – where he showed her various objects and asked her if anything came to her mind. If any of them reminded her of anything.

They never did. Her mind was just as empty as before and even if the brown-haired girl was interested to find out why was he behaving like this with her, she did not dare to touch anything. The dusty piles of trinkets, smaller and larger objects that long since lost their color seemed dangerously unstable and if they were to topple over not only will she be buried under a considerable amount of mental luggage, but the clattering of the fallen things (memories, feelings and thoughts) would resonate through the place and alert her host to her hiding place (and Alice was more than sure her presence is less than welcome here). And this time – unlike when they was at the Rainsworths' attic – he will not protect her from the fallen things.

It only felt like a minute ago that she closed her eyes but the brown-haired girl was roughly jolted from her slumber, waking to the panic resonating through the very depths of her Contractor's soul. His dread, fear and guilt upon finding out that no one had seen Alice since morning and that the girl was nowhere to be found on the entire premises of the Rainsworth estate was so deafening that despite her apprehension she had no choice but to muster up all of her courage and abandon her place.

The girl was prepared for getting scolded for vanishing without saying anything to anyone or getting dragged on a guilt trip for unnecessarily worrying and overworking the staff and the Rainsworth women alike; Alice was even prepared for a slap – but she was not prepared for that she would be pressed hard against her Contractor in a tight hug the moment she materialized.

"Where the hell was you? Do you know how worried I was?" he did not even waited for an answer before continuing. "Don't you ever do this! Never again." the white-haired man repeated the last sentence over and over as he nuzzled her neck with his nose.

With her body frozen at the unexpected turn of events, Alice could not help but think about how during her stay in his mind she could not figure out the reason of him acting like that on that exact day every year; and it also puzzled her to think that despite his strangeness and flaws, that idiot was the highest ranking (and undoubtedly most favored) among the servants.

The red-eyed man had so many privileges and was so at ease with the Rainsworth women that it often looked like he was nearly at the point where he was on the same level as Sharon – but then where was her place? She was promised a knight – a servant, but she ended up as one too? It was just so confusing...

It was a loud sneeze that (weeks later that event) interrupted her musings as she wanted to solve the puzzle that called itself Xerxes Break once again, and Alice slowly opened her eyes to find herself in the room she shared with the above mentioned man. The brown-haired girl was surprised to find it enveloped in a dim orange light (ah, it was already night?), but not as much as experiencing the unfamiliar feeling of the room spinning wildly by itself combined with the unbearable heat and the pain along her body on top of her inability to breathe through her nose.

Ah, human illnesses was a pain in the ass. But the fact that apparently Chains could also get those human illnesses was a bigger pain.

"I'm bored." the brunette said as the albino gently pressed a wet cloth to her warm forehead. It felt cold for which she was grateful since it was unbearably hot under the numerous blankets and sheets (and even some towels and coats piled on top of her, courtesy of the red-eyed man himself) and every time she tried to smuggle out one of her limbs from under the pile it was mercilessly tucked back.

"Do you want to hear a story?" Break asked as he put the cloth aside and fixed the covers. "Let's see... How about this? Once upon a time, far over mountains made of glass lived a woman with her seven sons."

"She worked day by day, but one time she did not get any payment other than a pitcher of clabber so she told her sons: 'This little clabber is all the food we have so don't touch it before we swell it with flour.'

"At night the woman came home. 'Now that you seven ate all the clabber, turn into seven ravens!' she said upon seeing that not even a drop of milk remained but right after her invective she already felt sad and guilty. 'How could I curse my own sweet flesh and blood so?' But off flew the seven ravens without ever coming back and the woman remained without children."

"She went to look for the Sun, but could not find her seven handsome sons. She went to look for the Moon, and the Wind weeped with her in grief. Her soul could not find solace nor could her crying bring her peace and the seven ravens never came back from the sky."

"In her final despair she called out so: 'Rocks, stones let you speak! Trees, stars do not keep silent! Help me find my own flesh and blood, my handsome seven sons who were turned to ravens!'

"Finally the answer came: 'You cannot ever see your seven handsome sons, nor can you know where they are, but if there was a brother, maybe he could help.'

"And so the _táltos_ boy finally set forth to find his brothers' trail. He went to the House of the Sun, to the House of the Wind. It was Wind who finally told him what to do. 'Their bodies are ground by a mill, but they cannot die, so drip your blood into their food. That is the way to break their curse and for you to be together forever.'

"Since then eight stars shine brilliantly on the sky, they will shine as long as the world still turns. The woman, if she came on a summer night by looking up can see her eight sons. Brightly shines the Pleiades on the sky, it will shine as long as the world still turns. Nothing can separate the brothers now, their light irridates the summer night."

Though by the end of the story the brown-haired girl had barely enough strength to keep her eyes open, she was not yet tired enough to forget about the question that did not left her mind for weeks now.

"Hey, who are you?" she asked drowsily and her self-acclaimed caretaker (for which position the man had gotten into a small showdown with Sharon before ultimately they reached an agreement that next time the young Rainsworth heiress could play nurse – hah, as if Alice would let that happen! She would rather give an entire month's worth of her meat ration to Mad Hatter on her own free will before feeling so vulnerable again) froze before resuming his clumsy fumbling with the towel wrapped around a teapot.

"Oh, could Alice be hallucinating because of her fever?" he turned to her with his lazy Cheshire cat smile. "I'm Xerxes Break, most faithful servant of the Rainsworth family, agent of Pandora and your Master~"

"No, _who_ are you really?" the girl pressed on, not at all pleased at how the man tried to mask it with his usual ear-to-ear smile, but the brunette did not let herself be fooled and looked at him sternly. Even in her sorry state of sleepiness and high fever she could still see one thing clearly: Xerxes Break wasn't Xerxes Break.

"That is a story for another time~" if she could've, Alice would've huffed in displeasure at hearing her Contractor's reply. "Now then, hurry up and get to your beauty sleep! Bad girls who miss out on their sleepy times do not get healthy quickly~!"

That night no matter how many times had she asked him that question she did not received an answer. At one point the albino even got up to take the dinner he made for her (he called it 'breadcrumbs in milk' and insisted on that it was not only nourishing – whatever that meant – but also light enough for her weakened body and diminished appetite; still there was no way Alice will eat that slop) back down to the kitchen to reheat it and the brunette could only cough out the word _'coward'_ at his retreating back.

The brown-haired girl couldn't see him coming back for her eyes took longer and more frequent rests in the half-lit room and her last conscious thought that night was that depending on the circumstances she _might_ just hesitate if given a chance to end his life.

~ o ~

The fourth thing she noticed about him was how feminine he actually was. Not only was he slim, but had flawless porcelain white skin, shiny and silky hair and long, black eyelashes. The white-haired man looked so ridiculously girlish that for a long time Alice was sure – and would've bet a month's amount of her meat portion – that the mad albino actually lied about his gender. It did not help her (and she was surprisingly sullen because of the fact) that he could possibly wore most of her clothes better. This combined with the fact that the man surprisingly liked to cuddle in his sleep did not let her to be convinced otherwise until she had the misfortune to walk in on her Contractor of nearly a year then as he was getting ready for taking a bath.

"Are you still angry, Alice?" the red-eyed man hummed silently as he played with her long locks. For the biggest part of that morning and afternoon she was giving him the silent treatment.

"You shouldn't be going with her." Alice said sullenly, but closed her eyes. Damn, his hands felt nice. "You should be taking me."

She could feel a low chuckle vibrate in her Contractor's chest as he set down the hairbrush and worked his magic on some decorative hairpins. Somehow he could always manage to get them to hold her hair up properly.

"I can't. It was Lady Shelly who received the invitation, but since she's feeling unwell Ojou-sama will stand in for her. Besides, it will be more than enough for me to look after one cute young girl in that house of womanizers. And what will become of me if the young master Oz Vessalius seduced you from me?" his tone was so thick with fake anxiety and mischief at the same time, that Alice could not resist to tease him back.

"If that happens, then it will be entirely your fault." she smiled wickedly, but leaned back into the embrace of her Contractor of five years. (Not that she counted. It just so happened to be the day of their anniversary. Not that she kept track of that either.)

"Maybe." he held her a little longer before reluctantly standing up and putting on his frock coat. "Be good while I'm away, okay?"

"That depends entirely on what you bring back to me." the brown-haired girl answered smartly. It was an unwritten law between them that whenever the albino went somewhere he couldn't bring her, he would buy her something for consolation.

"Should I buy you glass slippers then? Even if the magic ends by midnight?" His only answer was a blank stare. _'Ah, she's still not familiar with human fairy tales... Could she really forget that much?'_ the man thought a little dejectedly, but collected himself before Alice could catch on.

"I mean it. No eating in bed, take a bath and brush your teeth before sleeping, don't go anywhere outside of the house and most importantly: no terrorizing the servants." he said playfully before quickly pecking her lips and with a wave, the white-haired Pandora agent was out of the door. By now Alice wasn't even surprised that she was no longer angry with him.

The brunette sighed and got up from their bed to take a good look at herself in the dresser's mirror. It was impossible to stay angry with him. Especially when instead of preparing himself for that Oz Whatever brat's something-or-other ceremony, he spent most of his day with running a relaxing bath of warm water and bubbles for her. Like always, the man bathed her himself, using rose scented soap to wash away the knots in her body and gently massaged her scalp with shampoo.

When he was satisfied with her cleanness, the albino dried her hair and lightly dabbed at her skin with a soft towel, then slowly dressed her in fine jewelry and a new silk evening dress he ordered to be custom-made for her. He took extra care in brushing (always exactly a hundred strokes) and styling her hair with lovely rose-shaped hairpins. But he did not do her make-up. (He never did, because he hated the stuff.)

Alice half expected him to promise to take her along the next time or bring her to one of the public dances she heard so much about. (But he never made her promises he couldn't keep.)

Alice knew that the red-eyed man needed to keep his attendances (and hers along with it) outside the house to a bare minimum because of his unchanging appearance. She was also aware of the fact that those parties were mostly held to the lesser nobility and some of the common folk – a group of people who were prone to gossip and chatter without thinking as she learned quite early on–; and while the girl carried a cold and unapproachable air around her that was typical for the highest ranking nobles (even some visitors of the Rainsworths' without connection to Pandora mistook her to be one of Sharon's distant cousins upon first glance), the man was nothing of the sort.

She understood it. Still...

A small frown contorted the face of her reflection as more dark thoughts invaded her mind. It was not right. Not at all. He wasn't supposed to go anywhere and leave her behind. He could end up injured or even dead without her and wasn't it her job to protect him (just as it was his to protect her)?

Did he really needed to go without her? Or was it because of the strange tension recently between them? Alice wasn't stupid. Ignorant or naïve maybe, but not stupid. She knew he felt the same pull towards her and the same electricity when their bodies brushed each others. It was truly annoying.

It was exactly like in Sharon's books. Except it wasn't.

There was no confessions in the middle of the night under the pale light of the full moon (and his room did not have a balcony), no duels fought for her favor with dashing princes at midday and most definitely no poetry sent from a source that was unnamed but could be easily figured out.

Instead there was the dance that those stupid, stupid books (that Sharon forced her to read in her quest to 'make Alice aware of her status as a female') called _'almost but not quite'_.

And it was the fault of all those books and training in womanly behavior that dig her grave and made her aware of the lingering touches during their trainings and mock-battles, the dark gazes promising something more and the painfully clear borders that never got stepped over.

And it was all so irritating.

Why did she gave in to Sharon and read those books? Why couldn't she say no to her or the very least tactically retreat until she could get an advantage over the next head of the Rainsworth family?

And why couldn't that clown bastard ever take a hint? What more was she supposed to do after 'dropping' her handkerchief before him, willingly touching him, spending time with him when he worked in his office and eating cakes and pastries while drinking tea with him every day at five o'clock in the afternoon?

They was already bathing together, sleeping together and kissing on the lips. The brunette was even ready to stop searching for her memories. (Though it was more because of the fact that they still haven't found one in the last five years, but still!) What more could that greedy son-of-a-clown want from her? Why couldn't he do what he was supposed to do – like the men in those books – and grovel at her feet proclaiming his never-ending love and proposing marriage to her?

Was it because she was a Chain? Or was she not pretty enough? Or was she-

'See? This is why those books are stupid! They planted these ridiculous ideas into my head!' Alice huffed indignantly, but a small green object at the edge of her vision caught her attention with its brightness and with letting out a last longing sigh, the girl picked up the hard candy from the dresser.

'Geez...' the brown-haired girl thought before popping the sweet little orb into her mouth. 'He always does such unnecessary things to make me feel better...' and for the first time that day she actually smiled as her hands smoothed down the wrinkles on her skirt.

While the amethyst eyed Chain crunched on the candy and waltzed out of the room to find some unfortunate servant she could harass until dinner, she decided that maybe... she wouldn't kill him, but she would still love to kick him in the face.

~ o ~

The fifth was something that didn't even shock her because it was somehow related to her third finding: that no matter what intricate mask Break put on before others – even if he himself believed his own façade,– he could not entirely conceal his true feelings.

The most obvious demonstration of this occurred just five days since she befriended the unfortunate brat that got thrown into the Abyss, the same brat that was apparently Seaweed head's master (a fact Alice graciously – though not without the promise of receiving some of the Raven's delicious cooking – decided to shut her mouth about before the blond)– and now (from the looks of it) the newest Contractor working for Pandora or more specifically Break.

The five of them (Sharon, Oz, Seaweed Head, Break and Her Glorious Self, that is) was just having afternoon tea in one of the elegantly furnished tea rooms of one of the Rainsworths' country estates and making idle chit-chat. The conversation just shifted from the topic of the warm early autumn weather when something disturbing happened.

"Wah, it's not fair!" Oz complained while he extended his fork with a piece of his dacquoise to Alice, however the moment the brown-haired girl accepted the treat everyone fell silent. "How come Break gets to have a sweet Chain like Alice?"

"You know how it is," Break answered with a (at least to the brunette) strained and overly prim smile while nearly snapping his fork in half. Quickly realizing his mistake (and Sharon discreetly preparing her paper fan), the albino man turned back to his half-eaten Dobos Torte and noted with satisfaction that his offered up piece was also accepted by Alice. "you can't have all of them to be so cute, Oz-kun."

Though the tension quickly dissipated, the Clown (yes, her inital nickname remained even after 15 years. It just fit so well.) as well as Seaweed head became wary of her relationship with the Vessalius heir. Which resulted in them forging an evil alliance of some sort. Though it was not 'evil' in the classic sense of the word but they seemed to know where they were, how much time they spent together and if their (rather short) patience ran out, the white-haired man did not waste any time to fetch Alice himself and find something that would occupy one of them (preferably on completely different sides of the estate). It was rather exasperating.

Yet despite her Contractor's apparent jealousy and possessiveness since she befriended Oz, the girl did not distance herself from the blond. If anything, they became even more close due to his fun and easy to talk to personality. He also had a fondness for harassing Seaweed Head, a trait they both shared.

That's why they clicked almost immediately, something the amethyst eyed girl couldn't do before their meeting. If anything, her social interactions were rather limited and it took some time till she could let the few people she got to associate with close enough for her to be considered 'friends'.

It was a normal thing to do at her age, she reasoned as opposed to her Contractor's rather vocal conviction about the need of a chaperone at every interaction between a boy and a girl. Which was ridiculous since he did not give voice to his opinion when it was Sharon and Oz meeting.

And thus, the morning of day 22 since Oz Vessalius' return from the Abyss was as doomed to end up to be completely nerve-racking because of the two Contractors' constant interventions as on all seventeen before it. They just could not mind their own business, could they?

"I want it." she did not even take the trouble to greet him as the brunette kicked open the white-haired man's office. She was still too angry at his newest trick to separate her from her newfound playmate (booking an appointment for her and Sharon to the dressmaker for a dress to be custom-made for their meeting with Duke Barma in the Opera House next week? Really? Couldn't he come up with something better?) to bother with such trivial matters as formalities or the life-span of inanimate objects.

"Isn't this place a little crumpled for it?" the albino grinned wickedly. The sly way he looked around in his office was just a little too ambiguous for Alice's taste and the girl's cheeks reddened at his suggestion.

"Not that. I want _it_." the girl blurted out in obvious distress as she flailed her arms around. But if the brunette thought that her albino Contractor will ease the situation and pass up this opportunity to tease her, then she was sadly mistaken.

"I think you must elaborate a little then, because I honestly have no idea of what do you mean by _'it'_." the red-eyed man sighed and went back to work through his (rather tall, twenty-eight piles of) paperwork. Che, figures.

"You know! The thing!" Alice was gradually getting more and more agitated which in turn caused that Pierrot to smile more and more widely.

"But I do not know _'the thing'_?"

"The pink one!"

Oops, wrong choice of words if the widening of that annoying smile on his face was any indication.

"The one that is square-_like_." Alice huffed, then as an afterthought added "Pervert."

"This one?" the white-haired man rummaged through the drawer of his writing desk before pulling out a pink rectangular eraser.

"No. The striped one." the girl tried again with her eyebrows knitted together. He really wasn't going to make this easy, was he?

"This?" this time the man fished out a half-eaten piece of strawberry mousse tart. Which was definitely closer to what the brown-haired girl was asking for, still not exactly what she wanted.

"No. It has apricot jam in it!" Alice shook her head and the man put the confection down on an unused part of his cluttered desk before going back to pull out another item–

"Oh this?"

–Which was not what she wanted. It was a fucking mignon. He gave her a fucking mignon. A pink fucking mignon to be specific. With a marzipan rose and all that superfluity on top. The nerve of him!

"No! The one with the cocoa filling!" the purple eyed Chain was progressively getting more irritated by the second. It did not help one bit that the clown was grinning like an idiot on her expanse. That little! How dare he make fun of her!

"But this has a cocoa filling–" he started, but the girl's low growl did not promise anything pretty so Break decided to search some more as he deposited the pastry into the ever-growing pile of confectionery on his desk before resuming his search. "How about this?" and out came a whole slice of strawberry-mascarpone cake. Now he was just being an asshole.

"No! The one you always eat!" The brunette was on the verge of screaming _'you dense motherfucker'_ and starting another round in her _'whack-the-clown'_ game (though she had yet to land a hit on him) when he sensed her agitation and decided to end his playing around.

"Ah, you can't possibly mean the punch-flavored pastry?" the idiot grinned as he conjured up said confectionery from the depths of his seemingly bottomless drawer. (Or at least it was when it was about storing sweets and disposing of unwanted paperwork.)

Alice's eyes shone upon seeing the chocolaty-cherry treat on its golden sponge base and pink sugary topping. "Yes! That!" Finally, her torment has ended!

"Then why didn't you say so in the beginning?" Break teased but quickly moved away from her when Alice reached for the plate on which the pastry laid upon. "Ah-ah! I don't work for free even for you, my dear. Where's my pay?" Yup, she knew it was too good to be true.

Not wanting to drag this nonsense of an exchange any longer than it already was (since she had an important meeting with Oz about something concerning Seaweed head and the practical usage of his phobia of cats) the brown haired girl loudly sighed. She climbed into the lap of her Contractor of fifteen years, being mindful about the position of her shins (lest she accidentally hurt him by squeezing the edge of his limbs to his seat again) as she straddled him and pressed a quick peck to his lips. "Here. Happy?"

"Extremely." the red eyed Contractor smiled contentedly and handed her the plate with the punch-flavored pastry after Alice got back to her feet. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some long overdue paperwork to do." he sighed tiredly as Emily chanted _'Slave work! Slave work! The abuse of position! Unforgivable!'_ on his shoulder.

She couldn't stop a smile to form on her face at the antics of her Contractor. "Tch. You speak as if I won't do half of them like always."

"Well then, we have little time to waste if we want to get dinner tonight." the white-haired man gave a little wave with one hand as he was writing with the other and Alice took it as her cue to leave. "Try to be not too harsh when you break the young master Oz's heart."

"Oh, and Alice!" he added quickly before looking up and smiling brightly at her. "Happy birthday and anniversary, my dear."

Suddenly remembering that she was supposed to be still mad at him, the brown-haired girl did not say anything as she exited his office and took off into the direction of the boathouse she was to meet with Oz. She was already excited to go boating with him on the Rainsworth family's swan lake and share the pastry later with him.

And despite all her annoyance with her Contractor lately, the brunette couldn't stop smiling every time when she looked at the confection he bought in town for her.

She guessed she could kinda tolerate his presence. Kinda.

~ o ~

The sixth was an undeniable truth; the painful reality of how broken he really was. Even if the brown-haired Chain did not like it one bit, she was long since used to him wheezing terribly and coughing up blood or occasionally fainting when he exerted himself or used just a little too much and a little too recklessly of her power in the rare occasion the albino entered a fight.

On those days she will yell at him that he was _'too weak for her power'_ to which he would spat back that it's her fault, because_ 'her power is too damn strong'_ along with a lot of other angry remarks and insults aimed exclusively at her. In no time they will be at each other's throat, spitting venomous words and comments that taste like bile on their tongue.

On the evening they came back from their meeting with the idiot-hair duke in the Opera House, however, their routine of 'kiss and make up', hold hands and sleep next to each other on the end of the day was broken.

"No." It was the albino man who broke their kiss before she could push down that annoying white dress shirt from his shoulders. "We shouldn't."

"Why?" the brunette wanted to resume, but his hands on her shoulders did not let her to move closer than arms reach.

"It's not right. We aren't married." the red-eyed man tried to reason with her but all he got was a shrug as Alice sat back a safe distance from him on the bed. However, the relief that washed over him upon thinking that she was leaving things as they was became very short-lived.

"Unnamed Maid#7 and Valet#2 aren't either." the amethyst eyed girl scoffed and one by one undid the buttons of her dress. Unnervingly slowly she shimmied out of the red fabric and shoot him a dark glare as she pulled the corset over her head; knowing full well that the albino man's gaze was on her the whole time. But upon seeing his serious face she added shyly "Then marry me."

"We can't." he chuckled darkly (and a little bitterly?) as his fingers danced on the soft, white flesh of her chest. The white-haired man did not meet her eyes but Alice could tell it was just as hungry as hers. "You have no legal status and I do not exist on papers–" she took advantage of the opportunity that his lowered guard presented as he was pulling the fabric back over her chest to move closer and claim his lips one more. "And even if we could–" but his body betrayed him when despite the objections the man voiced it did not fight against the kiss. "–if this gets out–" again. "–Pandora would take you from me." and again.

"We'll be quiet then." the brown-haired girl smiled mischievously at him but it quickly turned to a frown when the albino stopped her hands from unbuckling his belt. "What? Am I not good enough? Is that–"

"No! That's not what I–" he sounded alarmed as if he was scared she will cry at any minute (which she wasn't about to do) and searched for a way to word his thoughts properly. Alice had a tendency to switch into aggressive mode seemingly without any reason. (But they both knew it was because the unlucky soul that gathered her anger on him/herself was an annoying idiot.) "I'm too old for you. I could be your father-"

Alice could nearly applaud him for being honest with her for once instead of opting for misleading her. Nearly.

"And I could be your grandmother." she said indifferently and her devilish hands travelled down to the bulge in his pants.

"Please, Alice." the white-haired man hissed before taking her dangerous, sinfully dangerous hands into his. "I'm not worthy." Betraying nothing but the need of making her understand reflecting in his dark, wine-red orb as he kissed each of her fingers. "You should share this with someone else, like Gilbert, or Reim or Oz..."

"I don't want it to be with them." pulling back her hand the brunette took the digits his lips made contact with into her mouth and sucked on them one by one. With saliva coated fingers glinting in the soft candlelight, she followed the quick up and down movement of his Adam's apple before returning her amethyst eyes to his. For a moment, a raw, feral hunger flared up in the gaze of her one-man-audience but it was extinguished just as quickly. "You are worthy and I love you."

"I could hurt you." With voice hoarse and throat dry (but this time not at all because of his recurring overuse of her powers) the red-eyed man needed to cough a few times before speaking, silently cursing his damned self for not being able to tear his gaze away from the sensual display before him. It was so long ago, too long ago since he last took part in such activities and with someone so alluring – someone so willing... – he needed to wrench back control before it was too late.

"I know you won't." with a soft _'pop'_ she let go of her last finger. He could not take it anymore. Not if he wanted to be in control of himself.

"You don't know me." the albino whispered as he looked down at his hands. His shaking hands. He was sure every last one of the Gods and Devils was privy to his downfall in this temptation on earth and was laughing at him. Damn it.

"I may not know _'Kevin',_" the little temptress said as she took his chin and angled his face back up to hers. Was she even aware what she was doing to him? What she was asking of him? Of course she was. "but I know _'Break'_."

"But I _**am**_ Kevin too." the ruby eyed Contractor spat out, still unwilling to look into her eyes. "And I've done horrible, unspeakable things-"

"You _**won't**_ hurt me." her tone did not hold any doubt when the girl straddled him and he had to bite back a groan that threatened to escape his lips. "I want you... to make love to me..." Feeling felt her warmth right on top of him, along with her words ripped the tattered remains of his self-control away from him.

But unlike that night and all the nights since then, this time – which was the fifth night since the chaos at Isla Yura's mansion and the second night since he woke up from his coma – Alice did not want slow.

She only wanted hard and fast and _**now**_ – until she could not remember the dread she felt upon finding out that her idiot, idiot Contractor got into a fight he could not win alone – that he would've lost had it not been the Nightrays' Raven that tumbled upon them – that he used too much of her powers again, that unlike the previous times, he did not woke up after a few minutes...

The brown-haired girl wanted to forget how much it felt like a slap in the face; one that ended the fragile dream of their untouchability and opened her eyes up to the cruel nature of their reality; that even if their appearances did not changed in the last fifteen years, his time was slowly running out in this life – along with her stay in this world.

Most of all the brunette wanted to forget that the albino man was more corroded inside than he let out but the true extent of how damaged his body became in their years together only came to her knowledge on that hateful night and the days that followed it without him waking up.

That the man tried to keep her in the dark, to make her believe that everything was alright, but the moment he decided to distance himself from her was when she knew something was terribly wrong. He never missed a night to curl up with her under the blankets no matter how tired or weak he was, one time the man even joked that all the Chains of the Abyss wouldn't be enough to separate him from her.

It was too painful to think about that now, just as painful as thinking about how she stopped looking for her memories because she did not care anymore about cold memories of mysterious blonds and half-forgotten melodies; because the ones they made together was warm and so much more real.

But it was nothing compared to when her red-eyed Contractor tried to push her away; when he said that he was getting old and she could gain nothing by sticking around him. That it would be best if they cancelled their Contract and she forged one with Oz or Sharon instead. That heck, even Gilbert or Reim would be a better choice than him.

She didn't want to hear that or any other bullshit he might spew under the false belief of protecting her; so in a rare moment of weakness – when the albino man just cajoled her shuddering body into completion with his damned tongue and fingers deep inside her, in the exact same moment when, amidst her pleasure he hissed because of the not-so-light pull of her fingers tangled in his hair – she wrenched dominance from him.

"You are an idiot. A bloody idiot." the brunette hissed on top of him, and not wanting to think about how easily could this be their last night together, she set a new rhythm – hard and fast – that had the albino Pandora agent choke on a curse.

"Fuck! Do you want to kill me?" his fingers dig painfully into her hips but she did not stop.

"Yes," her moan came out strangled and his hips buckled under her. "because instead of the Dial completing and dragging down your Contractor to the depths of the Abyss, it's so much more fun to ride him to death."

The girl could hardly finish her sentence before he – not breaking the maddening pace she set even for a minute – sat up and took a rosy bud into his mouth. The new position along with the undivided attention of his skillful tongue on her breasts kissing, licking and sucking prompted her to reach her peak a second time that night. She let out such delicious noises that he couldn't help but sink his teeth to her soft flesh to hear her airy whimpers become moans and low groans as the amethyst eyed girl felt him twitch inside her.

She threw her head back and screamed in wild abandon but he did not slow for a minute, lengthening her pleasure with each rub of his hips as he took back the contol and pinned her down on the bed.

The red eyed man did not let her recover, instead he drank up her moans with a searing kiss and drove her up harshly with every hard, fast and deep pound of his hips.

"I love you. I love you. I love you." was his mantra with every thrust and her nails left bloody trails on her Contractor's back and shoulder blades that he could not find it in himself to care about. Her airy whimpers was the only thing that interested the man and to put the mental map he spent countless nights to engrave into his mind into a good use and transform her moans into screams, until they was burned indelibly into his brain.

He kissed her just as hungry as the first time, but with an urgency and desperation; a direct consequence of the six days without seeing – feeling the other, before his lips found their way down her neck to the delicious point where it met the shoulders of the amethyst eyed girl in time with his fingers reaching the place they was joined together, pinching and rubbing her jeweled flesh until she couldn't think about anything else than how good he felt inside of her and how divine his dexterous fingers was.

The strangled whine Alice let out was the only warning before another orgasm forced out itself from her body, one that was not as powerful or long as the one before, but a silent kind and the clenching of her tight walls sent the white-haired man over the edge too. She felt him spill his seeds into her waiting depths before collapsing on top of her and she was surprised to find herself hum a familiar tune (a song he singed to her many nights before) and comb through his white locks as they came down from their high.

And later that night, when he was asleep with his body still entangled with hers – even now he was protecting her – Alicee had done something she did not do for quite some time: she reconsidered her opinion about him.

Her red-eyed lover still got on her nerves sometimes with his constant taunts and Emily's less than pleasant (or tactful for that matter) opinions, but for a long time now she didn't hate him anymore. And she _swore_ that if there would ever arise a situation again where his life was hanging on the line, she wouldn't even blink if she had to save him... even if it meant sacrificing herself.

* * *

**AN:** Not what I originally had in mind, but whatever.

In Hungarian folk tales there are often dragons with multiple heads (three, seven and twelve are the most popular ones) and other mythological beasts. Kinda cool, isn't it? =)

The first story Break tells Alice was inspired by this one story I'm extremely fond of called _**Fehérlófia (Son of the White Mare)**_, that my older brother used to read to me before bed. There are several versions of the story about the hero, Fehérlófia, who goes on an adventure and saves three princesses from the three-, seven- and twelve-headed dragons while chasing a devil (_Hétszűnyű Kapanyányi Monyók_ – I'm not even sure how to translate this, or if it can be translated at all, but at university I attended courses about History and Mythology and from what I could gather his name means something along the lines of _'a small devil that can transform into seven things'_) into Hell, getting betrayed by his companions and traveling back to the surface on the back of a griffin that demands meat and bread every once in a while. The food ran out halfway, but he cuts down one of his arms and a leg to feed the griffin with, who in turn for his selflessness grows them back with magic. Then the hero marry the youngest (and most beautiful) princess and earns half of her father's kingdom. Though in the original he did not kill his companions.

In the second story I included a Hungarian word: _**táltos**_. I often found it in English written as _'Taltos'_ (like the title of Anne Rice's novel). If you ever wondered what it was it is the name of ancient Hungarian spiritual leaders. They are both like and aren't like shamans. The word can be used both to spiritual leaders and animals performing miracles as well. The people who became táltos are always born with something 'extra', this could be a sixth finger, teeth or as in my case long hair. (I was born with chin-long hair two weeks before my due time healthy and did not need an incubator). There was a high chance of them being _'spirited away'_ by evil spirits, but when these children had grown up a bit, other táltos took them away and for years trained them before making them face trials (like throwing them into a pit with starved wolves and performing miracles). If they survived they was initiated as a full-fledged táltos. The main difference between them is that they are considered more powerful than shamans since they could enter a semi-catatonic state (called '_révedés'_), call on spirits and look into the future by themselves, without the use of hypnotic mushrooms. They also needed to battle with the Evil to ensure the continuation of the world. Right now little or no táltos remains in Hungary mainly due to the Habsburg kings' (and queens') violent persecution against them during the Age of Enlightenment.

Also I included some headcanons that I have:  
1: Break (and/or Kevin) has an impressive stash of folktales and tales about knights (and knows all of them by heart)  
2: Break is the type who is prone to impulsive shopping (especially if it's for candies, accessories for Emily or trinkets for Alice and Sharon)  
3: Alice did not hate Break at first glance, rather she only distrusts him  
4: When searching for Alice's memories Break at first thought that they was merely forgotten and could be triggered by showing Alice various things so he regularly took her up the attic of the Rainsworth mansion and brought back trinkets for her from town (which starts their tradition) and only later finding out that her memory is literally scattered around and sealed away in specific objects  
5: If Sharon or Alice gets sick Break freaks out. He just can't deal rationally with the situation and automatically assumes the worst. He will insist on taking care of the ill but in his frenzy, more often than not he will only incapacitate himself (and look like a beheaded chicken). XD  
6: Break was a part of Pandora for a few years before Sharon. Actually one of Sharon's reason to join was to help 'Xerx-nii'

This is the first lemon I ever posted so R&R, pretty please?


End file.
